All across the United States, Canada, and beyond, deeply controversial “smart meters” for electricity have been catching on fire and even exploding, sparking a major scandal that in at least one Canadian province has forced authorities to start removing all of the more than 100,000 devices. In Oregon, utility officials also announced that tens of thousands of smart meters were being replaced following numerous reports of fires. With the manufacturer saying the problems are systemic in the industry, experts predict more disasters to come as governments foist the “smart grid” on the world in the face of growing opposition.

Fukushima Daiichi, the Japanese nuclear reactor damaged in 2011 by a record-breaking earthquake and tsunami, is the subject of much controversy related to fear of nuclear power and fallout, fears based on misconceptions about the safety of atomic energy and the linear no-threshold model.

Thanks to the success of U.S. oil companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — a process used to extract oil trapped in shale formations — the United States will soon pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer. Both Saudi Arabia and the United States passed Russia for the top spot in recent years.